See in this time-lapse how the Sentinel-3B satellite was prepared for its liftoff on 25 April 2018 from Plesetsk in Russia.

Sentinel-3B joined its twin, Sentinel-3A, in orbit. The pairing of identical satellites provides the best coverage and data delivery for Europe’s Copernicus programme – the largest environmental monitoring programme in the world. The satellites carry the same suite of cutting-edge instruments to measure oceans, land, ice and atmosphere.

The component parts of BepiColombo, the European Space Agency’s first mission to Mercury, have been delivered to the launch site in French Guiana by air, sea and road.

The joint mission between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) consists of two orbiters and one transfer module. It required 70 shipping containers and four cargo planes to ensure it was safely delivered to the European Spaceport at Kourou.

Everything will now be unpacked and re-assembled, together with the addition of solar panels, before launching to Mercury later this year.

Astronomy is undergoing a revolution with the release of precision data on 1.7 billion stars in our galaxy from the Gaia space telescope. We head to the historic Observatory of Paris and ESA’s ESTEC base in the Netherlands to find out more.

It’s fair to say that science has been waiting for centuries, or even millennia for such a detailed survey of the Milky Way, and right now star-gazers are swamped with fresh, high-quality data that they can use to answer every question about the galaxy they ever wanted to ask.

The Space Storm Hunter, also known as the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor, completed its trip to space in a Dragon cargo vehicle in April 2018.

This video shows the different stages of that voyage, from launch to installation on the International Space Station.
The suite of instruments rode in the Dragon cargo vehicle that was launched on 2 April from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
After orbiting Earth for two days, Dragon positioned itself below the Station for capture. ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen played a crucial role at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston as lead ‘capcom’ during Dragon’s rendezvous and berthing.
Operators on Earth commanded the International Space Station’s 16-m long robotic arm to move the 314-kg facility from the Dragon spacecraft’s cargo hold to its place of operation on Europe’s Columbus laboratory on 13 April.

It is the first time that such a set of sensitive cameras, light sensors and X- and gamma-ray detectors will study the anatomy of luminous phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere and bursts of high-energy radiation.

Data from this observatory will improve our understanding of the effect of thunderstorms on the atmosphere and contribute to more accurate climate models.

ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter mission arrived at Mars in October 2016. After a year spent carefully adjusting its position, the spacecraft is now beginning its science operations.

The Trace Gas Orbiter’s instruments will be able to look through the atmosphere to identify trace gases – in particular methane – which could indicate signs of past or even present life. The orbiter will also act as a relay for rovers on the Martian surface.